Description: Seminar explores issues of contact and exploration between Western and Islamic worlds, from the Crusades to the modern era. Investigations will explore how identities are formed and reshaped through interaction with other cultures and how traditions are "invented" by relationships between civilization and despotism, freedom and tyranny, religious tolerance and holy war. Open to juniors and seniors. Open to others only with permission of instructor. (Please note that class rank is determined by year of matriculation, not credits.)